All About Holly

hollyThe American holly does more than brighten up our winter woods. Here’s a primer on this iconic plant.

Identification

The American holly (Ilex opaca) grows as far south as Florida, but it’s also found in a few places in Massachusetts. To spot one, search for these characteristics:

  • Small size—in the Northeast, it usually grows only 20-40 feet tall, though in balmy southern climes it can reach up to 100 feet
  • Greenish-grey bark
  • Spiny, leathery leaves that are shiny on top and pale green below
  • Greenish flowers in early spring
  • Often found in sandy coastal forests

Decorative Drupes

What about those characteristic red berries? They’re not really berries—botanists call them “drupes,” which means fruit that has flesh surrounding a hard central pit that forms from a flower’s ovary wall. Other drupes include peaches, cherries, and olives.

If you see a holly with fruit, you know it’s a female plant. You also know that there must be a male plant nearby. Only females make fruit, but they need the pollen of a male to get started. American hollies flower in late spring, and pollinators like bees and moths carry pollen from male trees to female trees.

Though holly fruit is toxic to people, it’s an important winter food source for birds and other wildlife.

Saving the American Holly

The American holly was once in danger of disappearing in Massachusetts. People were cutting too many holly boughs for decoration, and they were also clearing forests in sandy coastal areas to build houses.

Enter the “holly man,” Wilfrid Wheeler.  In the 1930s, Wheeler was worried that hollies might disappear from the Cape, so he began to grow the plants on his property, Ashumet Farm in Falmouth. He also encouraged people to plant hollies on public land.

Wheeler’s farm later became Mass Audubon’s Ashumet Holly Wildlife Sanctuary. His legacy lives on: the wildlife sanctuary is home to some 1,000 holly trees of 65 varieties.

Report Cards for Our Birds

killdeerConservation is a gamble on the future. While a complex array of drivers act on our natural systems to cause rapid changes in the landscape and the species we have come to love, we need to quickly adapt to make the best choices to preserve our natural heritage. That is not easy.

How do we make plans for protecting the most vulnerable species in the state? How can we ensure that we are making the right choices when we advocate for land acquisition and management? How can we be sure that our grandchildren will have the same opportunities to find wonder and solace in the Nature of Massachusetts?

One of the actions Mass Audubon took 10 years ago to help us prepare for the changing world we face today was to get a real inventory of the changes we had seen over the previous 35 years, and us that to help set priorities for our actions for the next 10 years. That inventory was the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas 2.

From 2007 to 2011, more than 650 of your friends and neighbors joined Mass Audubon to conduct the massive Breeding Bird Atlas 2. We combed every bit of the Commonwealth, from Williamstown to New Marlboro, and from Nantucket to Salisbury in search of breeding birds. We compared the results of that work to work done in the 1970s and the results are amazing.

BBA2We have two reports for you to dig into to learn all about the changes in the 222 species that nest in the state. First, we have the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas 2—available as an eBook at iTunes, on our website species-by-species, and, coming soon, a print-on-demand book.

Next, we have a summary of this work, State of the Birds 2013, which gives you the highlights of the Atlas project, and walks you through the planning process of designing recovery plans for declining species.

These documents are a milestone for Mass Audubon and for our members. Join us by reading, glancing through, browsing or devouring these document, then join us for discussion about what these data mean for the state and the region, and for our plans to continue to be the leader in protecting the birds of the state. Start the journey right here.

– Joan Walsh, Director of Bird Monitoring